Today, someone shared a post on Facebook which said, "God did not create religion. God created man. Man created religion." I not only agreed with his post, I past it on by sharing it. I have written of my hatred of religion on several occasions, and his post seemed to sum it up. One need only look at the first three chapters of Bible to see that God desired fellowship with man. Even after Adam sinned, God sought him out and provided coverings for Adam and his wife (Gen. 3:21). It is very interesting to note that God did not instruct Adam on forming a religion.
It was not until the Lord chose Moses to free the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and led them in the wilderness for forty years, that God gave the Jews the Law (that which shows us how to please Him), the Feasts of the Lord (to remember all that He had done for them), and the sacrificial system to "fix" the broken relationship between sinful man and Himself. If you see that as religion, so be it, but what I see is God offering humanity an opportunity to mend the broken fellowship.
The word "religion" appears only five times in the entire Bible, and three specifically refer to Judaism, the religion which rejected God's Son (Acts 26:5; Gal. 1:13-14). Each of these verses points to the negative aspects of religion. The other two occasions where "religion" is found are in the Book of James (Jam. 1:26-27). Even here, the two are critical of those who, like the Pharisees, have an outward appearance of being spiritual, but are spiritually dead. James was saying, "If you must be flaunting your religiosity, then do it right; visit the widows and orphans, and keep yourself from sin."
Born again believers worship the Lord out of gratitude for what He has "finished!"
We share our faith in Him with the lost, out of love for them!
we minister to the needy because we have our Father's Spirit!
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